​Britain approved £4mn Israel arms sales in the months after Gaza war

A Palestinian flag and a Hamas flag (R) flutter atop the wreckage of a house, which witnesses said was destroyed during the seven-week Israeli offensive, in the east of Gaza City September 3, 2014 (Reuters / Suhaib Salem) / Reuters

The UK government approved £4 million worth of arms sales to Israel in the immediate months following the Israeli government’s military bombardment of Gaza last summer, new research reveals.

Detailed analysis published Thursday indicates that the related
arms licenses cover military hardware likely to be deployed if
violence in the besieged coastal strip resumes.

Among the arms sales Britain presided over were special
components for military helicopters and a range of hi-tech parts
for guidance and navigation systems used by the Israeli Defense
Force (IDF).

The former Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government
also approved arms licenses for a slew of third-party states that
sell weapons to Israel. These particular licenses covered the
sale of components for military communications equipment,
helicopters used in combat and ground-to-ground missiles.

The controversial revelations formed part of a report authored by
David Wearing, a researcher at the School of African and Oriental
Studies (SOAS). A member of Campaign Against the Arms Trade’s
(CAAT) steering committee, Wearing’s work focuses on domestic and
international politics.

CAAT’s Andrew Smith said the revelations published in the report
showed it was “business as usual” with Israel for the UK
government.

“More than 2,000 people died in Israel's bombardment of Gaza,
and yet in the months immediately following the conflict it was
business as usual for the UK government and the arms companies
they support,” he said.

Smith said that Britain continues to sell arms to Israel, despite
the Israeli administration’s continued violation of international
law.

“The continuation of arms sales represents a form of
political as well as material support from the UK to Israel
despite the construction of the ‘apartheid wall’ in the Occupied
Palestinian Territories, the expansion of illegal Israeli
settlements there and the ongoing blockade of Gaza,” he
said.

Palestine Solidarity Campaign director Sarah Colborne said the
British state is arming an “apartheid” regime. She argued
Palestinians will not be freed from Israeli occupation,
discrimination, and bloodshed until sanctions are imposed on
Israel.

Ryvka Barnard, a senior campaigner on militarism and security at
War on Want, said the Arming Apartheid study highlights Britain’s
complicity in “Israel’s oppression of the Palestinian
people.”

She argued that the global campaign for boycott, divestment and
sanctions (BDS) on Israel has become more vital than ever.

“Only a full two-way arms embargo can ensure the UK will no
longer be complicit in Israeli state crimes and abuses,” he
said.

Report author Wearing says ministers’ suggestion that British
controls on arms exports are tightly controlled “do not stand
up to scrutiny.”

“Any real restriction comes from the embarrassment of bad
publicity, and then only in the wake of a conflict, too late for
the Palestinians affected,” he added.

Britain has a history of unethical arms sales to Israel.

A ministerial statement issued in April 2009 by the
then-Labour Foreign Secretary David Miliband confirmed that
Israeli military wares used in the 2008-9 Gaza conflict
“almost certainly” contained UK-supplied components.

The document was sent to CAAT after it launched a legal challenge
against then-Secretary of State for Business, Innovations and
Skills Vince Cable in 2014.

Last summer’s Israel-Palestine conflict culminated in the killing
of over 2,000 Palestinians. Israel, by contrast, suffered the
deaths of 64 soldiers and three civilians during the conflict.